19th September: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy mateys! Hoist the colours, splice the main-brace and raise the mizzen!

Yes! International talk Like a Pirate Day is almost upon us again!

Rather than rehash the suggestions I have made in previous years I thought why not take the musical route in your libraries in 2012. Piratical types have always enjoyed a bit of a sing-song as I discovered last year when I ran an impromptu shanty session in my library – teaching a group of year 7s,8s, 9s and two 6th formers how to sing Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Rum was brilliant! If I manage to do it again this year I will get a video and audio recording.

If you are interested in the music and words you can see (and hear them) here:

Then there is the Disney version (made famous by the ride in Disneyland and the movie Pirates of the Caribbean)

There is also a version by amazing Steampunk band Abney Park

Staying with Abney Park (and Pirates) they also have a track called Airship Pirates

Steampunk has been growing in popularity over the past few years – I have been a fan before I knew there was Steampunk, it started when I was in my teens and started reading the works of James Blaylock and Tim Powers, then years (and years) later I came to the UK and was given a copy of Airborn by Kenneth Oppel – and it brought back my love of airships, pirates and sky-high action.

I also love the Victorian era and the whole neoVictorian world that the Steampunk genre inhabits is something wonderful!

Anyway this is supposed to be a post about International Talk like a Pirate Day – I will get back to Steampunk in another post.

So Pirates!

Did you know that there are only three real Pirate jokes?

According to Cap’n Slappy that is…

The biggest one is the one that ends with someone usin’ “Arrr” in the punchline. Oh, sure, thar be plenty o’ these, but they’re all the same damn joke.

“What’s the pirate movie rated? – Arrr!”

“What kind o’ socks does a pirate wear? – Arrrrgyle!”

“What’s the problem with the way a pirate speaks? – Arrrrticulation!”

…and so forth. Those jokes only work if people know their arrrrrs from their elbows!

The second joke is the one wear the pirate walks into the bar with a ships wheel attached to the front o’ his trousers. The bartender asks, “What the hell is that ships wheel for?” The pirate says, “I don’t know, but it’s drivin’ me nuts!”

And finally, a little boy is trick or treatin’ on Halloween by himself. He is dressed as a pirate. At one house, a friendly man asks him, “Where are your buccaneers?” The little boy responds, “On either side o’ me ‘buccan’ head!”

Potential activities include

Creating a piratical joke-book;

Discussing movies featuring pirates;

Book discussions;

and on a serious note comparing the romanticised view of pirates versus their reality and the re-emergence of pirates of Somalia and other places.

YA Piratical Novels:

Vampirates Justin Somper

Pirates Celia Rees

Blackbeard’s Pirates versus the Evil Mummies James Black

Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson

The Curse of Captain LaFoote Eddie Jones

Airborn Kenneth Oppel

Pirate Movies:

Cut Throat Island

Pirates of the Caribbean

Treasure Island

Master and Commander: far Side of the World (not really pirates but amazing scenes of ship-based battle)

For more ideas and information of this most illustrious of holidays you can look here: